Nike needed to create a new source of inspiration.

People's first basketball experience and entry to fandom is not through NBA games. It's in their high school basketball games. Seeing a peer play, compete and win is very personal and much more emotional.

It was clear - we needed to celebrate the basketball journey of ordinary teens who are far more relatable than a superstar basketball player on the other side of the world.

On China's no.1 sports platform, Tencent Sports, team scores were scrolling front and center next to all the NBA team scores - creating a sense of pride among teens.

Across top sports news apps like Tencent Sports and Hupu Sports, we featured the games as well as MVPs from each game, again, next to news about top sports stars and teams.

All tickets to the league's games were sold out weeks in advance. Friends, families and schoolmates flooded into the stadium to support the young heroes.

We even livestreamed the finals and semi-finals on Tencent to amplify excitement for those outside the event. Professional basketball commentators as well as top basketball stars like China's Zhu Fangyu narrated each livestreamed game.

All of these contributed to a life changing experience for players and fans, an experience that China embraced unlike anything Nike had done before.

These journeys resonated among an unprecedented following across China - 120% more fans watched these high school teams than regular NBA games.

The hype was picked up by mainstream sports channels. The players and games were featured in China's national sports channel, CCTV 5, as well as local sports TV stations.

The finals garnered 2.8 million views on Tencent - that's more views on CCTV than any NBA game.

Games achieved 118,000 comments on Tencent and 61 million views on social media.